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THE li?^'^a:^y of 

S^AR 3? 1902 

-2. » 1- T- ^ 
COP> i. 



Copyrighted, J902 

By Pepper Publishing G>» 

Philadelphia 



c c « c^ c * e 



(tontente 

it The Man in Obscority . , 

2. Called of God . . . 

3. The Preparation of the Man , 

4. Unexpected Happenings 

5. The Terrible Odds 

6. The Failure of Sig^ns 

7. The Sifting' of Gideon's Army , 

8. The Three Hundred 

9. The Midianitish Tent 

to. The Weaponless Battalion 
t i. The Strange Instruments of God 
J2. Every Man Stood in His Place 
f 3« The Battle and Victory . . 
f 4. The Men of Naphtali. 
15. The Humility of Gideon. . . 
t6» The Magnanimity of Gideon 
f 7. The Snare of Gideon . . 



5 
(0 
13 
t7 
21 
24 
29 
35 
40 

52 
57 
60 
65 
69 
74 
79 



18. The Final Scene 84 



L 

THE MAN IN OBSCURITY- 




}T is remarkable to note the 
^ number of great men who 
have sprung suddenly into 
public notice and renown from 
the deepest privacy and ob- 
scurity* There was no gradual dawn of 
events heralding their approach; but^ as in 
some climes, the sun seems to leap in- 
stantly above the horizon, so these charac- 
ters loom up as immediately before their 
time and generation* The world was need- 
ing them sorely, but did not know of their 
existence until they stood in the front ready 
to teach, lead and deliver, as the case might 
be» 

So we see Elisha emerging from the 
ranks of seven thousand faitmul but equally 
obscure men, not one of whom was known 
to Elijah- John the Baptist comes up out 
of the Wilderness as though he was a part 
of its strange fruit and had been just shaken 
from the bough of one of its trees. Moses 
invades the frightened court of Egypt 
from the backside of the desert, and Gideon 
is first seen in a kind of hiding place, where 



6 THE MAN IN OBSCURITY. 

he was engaged in the ordinary duties of 
the farm* He was threshing wheat be- 
hind a wine-press to escape the notice of 
his country^s enemies^ who now possessed 
the landt Here was secrecy added to ob- 
scurity* 

Many of his countrymen^ we doubt not^ 
passed the lonely wheat thresher and 
dreamed not that he was to be the deliverer 
of their nation from the bondage of the 
Midianites* They saw he was industrious, 
but did not know that he possessed the 
gifts of a statesman and warrior combined. 
And yet, though they saw not his latent 
greatness, still he had it, and his life gave 
the confirmation* 

The history of the world abounds in 
similar instances^ When a St* Louis lady 
sharply reproved a wagon-driver for bark- 
ing one of her shade trees with the hub of 
his wheel while delivering a load of wood, 
she did not dream that she was addressing 
the future commander-in-chief of the armies 
of her country and the coming President of 
the United States* 

A preacher^s wife, standing on the gal- 
lery of an humble parsonage, told her hus- 
band, who was splitting wood in the yard, 
that they did not have enough food in the 
house for a single meal and had no money 
to buy any more. The then unknown 



THE MAN IN OBSCURITY. 7 

circuit rider, who was chopping in his 
shirt-sleeves, afterwards became one of the 
most renowned of American Evangelists 
and lecturers, with a splendid income rang- 
ing from twenty to forty thousand dol- 
Iars« 

We have little idea who is in the cotton 
patch and corn field to-day* We do not 
know what mighty men of the future are 
touching us on the street, and what geniuses 
and wonderful characters are sitting by us 
on the cars, or looking at us from the con- 
gregation* 

This single thought ought to dignify and 
elevate human nature in our minds and 
cause consideration and respect for every- 
one we meet* Truly we need not be sur- 
prised at anything after beholding men leap 
from a tailor^s table, from a canal-boat and 
from a wagon team to the highest office in 
the United States of America* 

Like the fairy story, the prince is still in 
disguise ; or, according to history, the king, 
all unknown to his entertainers, quietly 
turns the spit of the roast in one of the 
humblest cottages in his kingdom* 

A young clerk in New Orleans was 
supposed to be an unreasonable, day- 
dreaming sort of fellow ; but a few years 
afterward we saw one of the largest halls 
in that same city crowded with the most 



8 THE MAN IN OBSCURITY. 

intellectual people of that community^ giving 
rapt attention to one of the ^^ Readings ^' of 
that man, taken from books he had written 
in the days of his obscurity^ 

A mud-bespattered pedestrian requested 
an interview of a leading Evangelists He 
had walked in from the country, over 
twenty miles, to see and talk with the 
Treacher* He was a slave to drink, and 
lad heard that this Evangelist had once 
anguished in like bondage and had been 
delivered^ So he wanted to talk with him» 
The Evangelist, however, sent word by 
his stenographer to the plainly-clad man 
that he would see him next day. The 
visitor never returned ; but several months 
afterward was soundly converted and thor- 
oughly reformed while in the city of Phila- 
delphia. He to-day is regarded as one of 
the most gifted speakers and forcible lec- 
turers in America. Years after he became 
famous he met the Evangelist who had re- 
fused to see him* In the course of a few 
remarks he said to the preacher : ^* I once 
walked twenty miles to have an interview 
with you. I did not want money, but your 
counsel and moral help. You were too 
much engaged^ it seems, to see me. I just 
want to say you missed a splendid oppor- 
tunity of doing good/^ 

Truly we are made to stand in awe as 



THE MAN IN OBSCURITY. 9 

we see this strange procession out of ob- 
scurity into publicity, renown and great- 
ness» The questions may well arise, Who 
will be the next? Will we meet them or 
not? Will we recognize the worth of the 
man and help him on to his life-work, or 
will we be too busy to give a glance in his 
direction? 

Better than this, will we not honor all 
men, because God made them, Christ died 
for them, and because all can be princes 
and kings in the everlasting world to come? 




CALLED OF GOD. 




^HERE is no lottery method in 
God^s selection of human in- 
struments to do his work* The 
call is direct and personal and 
based on something the Divine 
Being sees within the individual in the line 
of gifts^ grace and character* 

It is noticeable that the Lord does not 
thus lay His hand upon men who are lazy^ 
indolent and regarded as failures in life* 
We have all seen such persons in the min- 
istry, but that fact was no proof that God 
had placed them there* 

We recall, when a young preacher, hear- 
ing a plea made at Conference for the ad- 
mission of an applicant ^^on triaL^^ The 
argument made by the Presiding Elder, as 
given him by the man himself, was that 
^^he had tried everything and failed in 
everything, and now felt that he must be 
called to the ministry/' On further ques- 
tioning by the Bishop, it was brought out 
that the applicant was forty-five years old; 
whereupon the president of the Conference 
gave it as his opinion that ^*he did not be- 



CALLED OF GOD. ii 

lieve that a man who had been a failure in 
everything all his life could, with any pro- 
priety or truth, construe that into a call to 
preach the Gospel/^ A glance at the lack- 
lustre face of the candidate confirmed the 
assembly of ministers and laymen in a 
similar impression, and the '^ failure ^^ was 
not admitted* 

While we all believe that God can put 
disaster and defeat on a man^s plans and 
works in order to whip him into duty, yet 
we also believe that the men whom God 
selects to stand for and spread His holy 
truths possess those attributes of head and 
heart which would have made them suc- 
ceed in business or other occupations had 
He not called them into His service^ 

Hence it is that we see the Lord laying 
His hand upon industrious and faithful 
men when choosing prophets, apostles and 
ambassadors* So Moses was taken from 
his flocks, David from the sheepfold, and 
Elisha was plowing when the mantle of 
Elijah fell upon him* Peter, John and 
James were fishing when Jesus summoned 
them to follow Him* Matthew was busy 
in his office as a tax-gatherer when the call 
of Heaven come, while Gideon was thresh- 
ing wheat when the Angel of the Lord 
appeared unto him* 

The world acts on the same principIe,^ 



12 CALLED OF GOD. 

and summoned Cincinnatus from his farm, 
Washington from his estate and Lincoln 
from his law office^ Clerks and book- 
keepers have told the writer that it is much 
easier to obtain calls to good positions in 
the business world when they have em- 
ployment than when out of work* 

It is the same in the religious life, and 
he who is busy for God, keeps receiving 
fresh calls for service, and finds a steady 
promotion in grace, liberty, power and 
honor all along the upward way* 

These are lessons we might well afford to 
study faithfully* We are told in the Bible 
to do with our might what our hands 
find to do* We are directed to be always 
abounding in the work of the Lord foras- 
much as w^e know that our labor is not 
in vain in the Lord* 

According to the Gospel the very indus- 
try of the man on the farm or in the office 
makes him a candidate for higher and 
better things ; for the Word says that he 
who is faithful in small matters will be 
counted worthy of promotion to that which 
is greater and more honorable* This, 
then, explains why the Lord, in selecting 
a deliverer for Israel, did not go to a thrift- 
less, shiftless character, but came to a man 
who was busily threshing wheat on his 
farm* 



IIL 

THE PREPARATION OF THE 

MAN^ 




^FTER the calling of a man 
into His service, God proceeds 
to fit him for the special duty 
or lifelong labor* This is 
the divine order, and all who 
have been eminent in Christian work say 
that long before the achievement of their 
lives came the preparation* 

A part of Gideon^s qualification had 
come in his previous faithful life; but the 
demands to be made upon him were to be 
of such variety and magnitude that still 
more had to be done for him — and was 
done* 

We find that Gideon waited upon the 
Lord with a sacrifice, and, while presenting 
it, the fire of heaven fell on the gift* He 
was also permitted to look upon and talk 
with the angel, who was none other than 
the Lord* Like Abraham, Moses and Ja- 
cob he spoke face to face with God* 

In this interview the Lord unfolded His 
plan of making him the deliverer of His peo- 
ple Israel* Like Moses under a similar 



13 



14 THE PREPARATION OF THE MAN. 

call, Gideon showed a profound distrust in 
his own ability, stating that his family was 
poor, and he, himself, was the least in his 
father^s house^ 

The Lord met these objections, as he 
had done in the case of Moses, with the 
simple but wonderful sentence : ** I will be 
with thee/' 

In these scenes, over which the hasty 
reader goes without marking their import, 
we recognize the striking facts of humility, 
worship and sacrifice on the part of man; 
and, finally, acceptance, communion, com- 
missioning-empowering and the face of God 
Himself on the heavenward side* 

The last is specially significant* If we 
are to be unmoved by the faces of men, we 
must first look on the face of God* We 
must go from the presence of the Lord, if 
we would stand as we should before the 
Pharaohs of this world ; and we must get 
our message and power from personal com- 
munion with the Almighty if we would 
not be overwhelmed by human tongues 
and overborne by the majorities of earth* 

Moses looked on the face of God, and 
after that stood up against the rebellious 
angry tribes of Israel* Paul was granted 
a vision of Christ, and after that no one 
could discourage or stop him* 

The disciples had been called years before 



THE PREPARATION OF THE MAN. 15 

from their fishing, and, later^ were told of the 
great work in the world which awaited 
them. The command given them was to 
^^ Tarry '' for the qualification. They did so^ 
and it came I Came with flames of fire and 
the conscious-burning presence of the Holy 
Ghost. After that no one could arrest their 
onward triumphant march, or, rather, 
flight. Commanded to cease preaching, 
they preached the more* Beaten and 
scourged, they rejoiced that they were 
counted worthy to suffer shame for His 
sake. Put in prison, they sang at midnight. 
Crucified or put to death in various horri- 
ble ways, they all died in the faith exultant 
and triumphant. 

The preparation in their case was not 
the mastering of a few dead languages, but 
the speaking with new tongues the wisdom 
of Heaven* It was not the gazing upon 
and listening for four years to some be- 
spectacled professors talking about certain 
^^ ologies,^^ excellent as all these studies are ; 
but they had looked on the face of Him who 
had made all things, and they knew Him, 
had spoken with Him as friend with friend, 
and had received His truth and Spirit and 
power* 

Caughey, the great Evangelist, felt called 
of God to visit England. Months afterward 
he obtained the preparation* He received 



i6 THE PREPARATION OF THE MAN. 

it while praying in the fence corner of an 
old field near Baltimore* He had been 
seeking it for days when it arrived* The 
fire fell ! The enraptured man looked, as it 
were, upon the face of God, and, leaping to 
his feet, cried out, ** I can go now ! '^ And 
he went; and all the world knows to-day 
what a wonderful work he accomplished* 

When Gideon had been told of his won- 
derful work, he in wisdom waited on God 
with his sacrifice* Then came the fire, and 
the divine manifestation, and after that the 
true labor of his life commenced. 

To-day there is an experience granted 
the soul where the man feels that he has 
been caught up and away into a Mount 
of Perfect Consecration and Devotement to 
Heaven. He has looked, in a sense, upon 
the face of the Lord, felt His burning pres- 
ence, and can now go back to the walks of 
men and to the work God has appointed 
him with victory already in his heart, and 
conscious that through His grace and 
glory he will override and overthrow every 
onset and opposition that earth and hell can 
possibly bring against him* This is God^s 
preparation* 



IV. 
UNEXPECTED HAPPENINGS 




^NE of the most daring and re- 
markable acts of Gideon^ and 
which his countrymen gave 
him credit for having planned^ 
as well as performed^ was a 
night attack upon the altar and grove 
of Baal and their complete destruction. 
When the people awoke next morning 
they beheld, with amazement, the prostrate 
trees, the demolished sanctuary of Baal, 
while the altar of God had been uprearedin 
their midst on the brow of a lofty eminence. 
It was all attributed to Gideon ; and yet 
we have only to glance at the Scripture 
to see that such a thing had not occurred 
to the man, but he only obeyed direc- 
tions given him personally by the Lord that 
very night. 

This single thought will revive some 
strange recollections in the minds of God's 
workmen and servants, for such happen- 
ings have taken place with all who are 
truly led by the Spirit. 

Preachers can tell of sermons suddenly 
required of them by the Holy Ghost when 



17 



i8 UNEXPECTED HAPPENINGS. 

they did not see their need^ and which 
brought about the most astonishing results 
of Satanic and human fury on the one side^ 
and deep and widespread good and salva- 
tion on the other* Writers will tell of arti- 
cles that they were reluctant to publish, 
and yet had to, under a strange directing 
power* Christians have taken a stand on 
some questions, opposed a custom, pleaded 
for a reform, or suddenly projected or advo- 
cated some moral or spiritual measure : and 
then stood fairly amazed at that which 
came out of it all, in the exposure of evil, 
the wrath of man, and any amount of abid- 
ing good accomplished. 

Ajid yet the day before there had 
been no thought of preaching the sermon, 
writing the article, or taking a certain 
stand on the question. Credit was given 
by the public for long preparation for 
the work when the whole matter was un- 
expectedly sprung upon the mind and 
burned into the heart by the Holy Ghost* 

A preacher well known to the writer 
spent a sleepless night in furnishing reasons 
to God why he should not preach from a text 
and subject that the Holy Spirit was press- 
ing upon him. We heard him say that he 
rolled in agony on the floor for hours, tell- 
ing the Lord that his congregation needed 
a sermon on repentance or regeneration 



UNEXPECTED HAPPENINGS. 19 

rather than holiness^ At daybreak^ per- 
fectly worn out in mind and body with the 
conflict, he consented to obey the impres- 
sion and preach from the text, ^* This is the 
will of God, even your sanctification/^ when 
instantly his soul was flooded with peace 
and joy* In another moment, like a flash, 
the whole plan of the discourse was given 
him* At eleven o^cIock he delivered the 
message, the power of God fell, and the 
altar was thronged with his leading mem- 
bers sobbing and crying for full salvation* 
Everybody thought that the pastor had 
planned the whole thing for weeks ahead* 
As a matter of fact, it was given him of 
God the night before* 

A sermon preached by the author, which 
has gone into the hundreds of thousands in 
pamphlet form, was literally forced upon 
him by the Lord* He preached it under 
the greatest natural disinclination* The 
results of that discourse would take pages 
to describe* 

All this goes to show how intimately 
God is connected with human affairs* It 
also reveals the wisdom of following the 
divine leadings* Some have these impres- 
sions and urgent inward motions given 
them, but are fearful and will not obey* 
Happy the man who, like Gideon, will do 
what God bids him to do ; who will exe- 



20 UNEXPECTED HAPPENINGS. 

cute the divine command, though only bid- 
den the night, or an hour, or a moment 
before; who will cut down the grove of 
iniquity, tear away the buildings of sin 
and erect over their ruins the altar of 
Heaven, leaving all present results and 
future consequences in the hands of the true 
and omnipotent God* 




THE TERRIBLE ODDS. 




VAST army of Midianites 
gathered against IsraeL They 
covered the fields^ swarmed up 
the valleys^ and, according to 
the Bible, looked like grass- 
hoppers for multitude, while their camels 
were like the sands on the seashore* 

Well might the hearts of the stoutest 
sink at such a military display* Even the 
courageous Gideon was sorely tried at the 
sight, as we can see in his talk with the 
Lord. But at this critical moment the 
Spirit of the Lord came upon him, the hero 
blew his trumpet and a band of his coun- 
trymen straightway gathered to his side. 

Every true follower of Christ knows 
what it is to be suddenly confronted at 
times with what can be called ^^ terrible 
odds/^ A work becomes colossal, tempta- 
tions increase, trials multiply, friends fall 
away and adversaries gather in number 
and become persistent in their attacks 
upon character, reputation, happiness and 
usefulness. 

Great workers have written fully of such 



22 THE TERRIBLE ODDS. 

experiences, very devout people have en- 
larged upon the strange besetment, and all 
Christians who are such indeed know 
something of these heart and life con- 
ditions* 

The temptation is sore at such an hour to 
give up the combat and go back to privacy 
and obscurity* The heart grows faint 
and sick sometimes as we note the grass- 
hopper multitude, count the camels, mark 
the tented plain and see the valleys choked 
up with the enemies of God and the souL 
So many are against the Lord and His 
cause and so few are for Him* So many 
do not believe in or care for us ; so few 
stand by us in real heart affection and 
spirit loyalty* 

There is no doubt that at these times 
the child of God would go down; but at 
such a crisis something happens which 
means present deliverance and future vic- 
tory* The Bible says when the enemy 
comes in like a flood then there shall be lifted 
up a standard against him* The relief and 
rescue in Gideon^s case was the sudden 
coming upon him of the Spirit of God* 

It will always be so to the faithful fol- 
lower of Christ* The promise is that as 
our days demand so shall our strength be* 
When Gethsemane comes with its loneli- 
ness and bloody sweat an angel will stand 



THE TERRIBLE ODDS. 23 

by us* When a Red Sea with tossing 
billows will appear to block our progress 
God will send a rod of deliverance by 
which the waves are split, a path is made 
bare and we cross over safe and dry-shod* 

The sight of difficulties and great majori- 
ties are evidently granted unto us in order 
to drive us closer to the Lord* Trouble is 
the black hawk in the air which sends the 
scattered brood of Heaven fluttering and 
flying to the outstretched wings of the 
Almighty* 

In some way relief and rescue will come 
to the man of God who is confronted by 
terrible odds* The Spirit will come afresh 
upon the clinging, dependent and discour- 
aged soul, and where just before panic and 
defeat seemed imminent and certain, lol 
and behold! there is suddenly increased 
power and overwhelming victory* 




VL 
THE FAILURE OF SIGNS- 




^HAT is there in the human 
heart which seeks after signs 
from Heaven rather than to 
rest upon the Word and faith- 
fulness of God ? 
We say nothing against miracles, by 
which the Lord endorsed his prophets and 
disciples and introduced Christianity into 
the world- We speak of the craving upon 
the part of people for outward phenomena 
when duty has already been made plain 
and the Spirit is urging them to obedience- 
Gideon had been told that he should be 
the deliverer of Israel- The Spirit had fallen 
upon him- God had said, *^ I will be with 
thee; ^^ and yet here he was begging for 
a few paltry signs to be granted to his eyes, 
though the Lord Himself had spoken 
through his ears to his souL 

The word of the God of all truth however, 
was not enough for this man- But if he 
could see some fleece drenched through 
and through with water, while the ground 
was dry all around, then he felt he could 
go forward and do the will of God* A little 



24 



THE FAILURE OF SIGNS. 25 

wet wool would be so convincing to the 
judgment^ so vitalizing and inspiring to 
the faith that, after that, he would be able to 
go out and meet a perfect multitude of the 
Midianites! 

So the dampened fleece was given by the 
pitiful God whose word, by this new 
condition or requisition,was now distrusted 
and discounted^ But it all ended as any- 
one could have predicted who has studied 
the nature and history of signs* 

Full of inward shame and condemnation 
Gideon came to God again with the words, 
^* Let not Thine anger be hot against me, 
and I will speak but this once ; let me 
prove, I pray Thee, but this once with 
the fleece ; let it now be dry only upon the 
fleece, and upon all the ground let there be 
dew/' God, who was doubted again, saw 
to it that a few locks of wool was dry in 
the morning while the earth all about it was 
wet* 

What a soul-inspiring, majestic spectacle 
that bunch of wool must have been to 
Gideon I Does anyone really think so? He 
had again demanded in his unbelief some- 
thing else than the word of God to help 
him discharge his duty, and we doubt not 
that when his hand touched the wool his 
own soul was as dry as the fleece before 
him* 



26 THE FAILURE OF SIGNS. 

So the second sign failed also^ as can be 
seen a little further on in the Bible narra- 
tive^ where God^ seeing the sinking heart 
of His servant, bade him go down at night 
in the camp of the Midianites and get the 
assurance of his coming victory from the 
lips of the enemy themselves^ This was 
the third sign* The wool manifestation, 
wet or dry, had come to naught, just as 
God knew it would* 

The whole demand for signs springs 
from unbelief* We say nothing against 
Providential tokens along the way of life 
by which God confirms to the obedient man 
that he is in the path of duty and discharg- 
ing the will of Heaven* We are referring 
to a spirit of doubt that will not take God^s 
word nor move forward as He directs with- 
out some peculiar display of the divine 
presence and power, which in our conceit 
we dictate to the Lord and also decide as to 
its fashion, form and continuance* 

The Savior, in His words to the noble- 
man, struck at this spirit which was filling 
the people in that day* ^^ Except ye see 
signs and wonders ye will not believe*^^ 
Again He said, ^^ This nation seeketh after 
a sign*^^ While to the demand of the Phar- 
isees, ** Give us a sign,'^ he sighed and 
said, ^* No sign shall be given*^^ 

It is well known that the typical happen- 



THE FAILURE OF SIGNS. 27 

ing in the life of Jonas, as applied to Christy 
was not beheld by the Jews ; they did not 
witness the resurrection nor ever behold 
Jesus again. 

The Lord seeks to bring His followers 
into a life of such faith in Him that they 
will not ask nor care for strange sights and 
sounds. Sufficient for them that Christ 
says a certain thing is so or bids them do 
this or that* They believe and obey ; they 
trust and go forward; they rest on His 
Wordt and nothing shall offend, shake or 
move them* 

Such a life glorifies God, and He will 
see to it that it also glorifies the souL 

The Gospel says a centurion came to 
Jesus beseeching Him, and saying, ^^Lord, 
my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, 
grievously tormented* But I am not worthy 
that Thou shouldst come under my roof; 
speak the word only and my servant 
shall be healed/^ This speech not only 
made Jesus marvel, but caused Him pro- 
found joy* Turning to those who followed 
Him He said: ^* I have not found so great 
faith ; no, not in IsraeL^^ Here was a man 
who asked for no sign, and did not even 
request Christ^s presence at his house. His 
entreaty was, ^^ Speak the word onlyl^' 
This was the perfection of faith. 

K we want to please God we must throw 



28 THE FAILURE OF SIGNS. 

2c^diY every doubt when He has spoken ; 
quit asking for strange tokens and wonders ; 
and, resting on His word, say, ^^ No matter 
what happens, I believe God; and though 
He slay me, yet will I trust Him/' 




VIL 
THE SIFTING OF GIDEON^S ARMY. 




^IDEON had^ after his sum- 
mons, only thirty-two thousand 
I three hundred men to oppose 
"an army vastly larger. Hope- 
lessly inadequate even as that 
number seemed, yet the Lord informed His 
servant that he had too many* He also 
knew of elements of weakness and defeat 
in the band that Gideon did not and could 
not know. 

So the Lord had the following test made : 
Let all that are fearful of heart return home; 
whereupon twenty-two thousand church 
letters were immediately called for, and as 
promptly given. 

This was a wonderful numerical 
landslide, a fearful defection, and was a 
melancholy commentary on the prevalence 
of fear among God^s people. Two out of 
every three in the army of Israel were cow- 
ards. 

We doubt not that a similar test applied 
to the church to-day would empty most of 
the pews and pulpits in the land. Moreover, 
we do not know that this would be a 



30 THE SIFTING OF GIDEON'S ARMY. 

weakening, but a strengthening of the 
cause of Christ^ We firmly believe that if 
two-thirds of the people in the church were 
out of it, it would be better for the church 
and better for the world as welL 

It is said that a preacher once reported at 
Conference that his appointment had been 
blessed with a gracious and powerful re- 
vival. The Bishop asked him how many 
members he had received by the meeting ; 
and his reply was that he had lost three 
hundred, and it was the greatest revival 
that had ever visited his church. 

The first sifting of Gideon^s army 
through the power of fear was followed by 
another test that went still deeper in the 
character life. Under the latter, ten thous- 
and more fell out of the ranks, leaving only 
three hundred men to face the Midianite 
armjr^ 

This double sifting was seen among the 
disciples of Christ. The first falling away 
was beheld when He began to go deeper in 
spiritual things, and said they would have 
to eat His body and drink His blood ; in 
other words, become partakers of the divine 
nature. At these sayings numbers followed 
Him no more. Indeed, so many left that 
Christ asked the twelve if they would also 
forsake Him* 

The second sifting was after the Resur- 



THE SIFTING OF GIDEON'S ARMY. 31 

rection^ He had met five hundred of His 
followers in a mountain of Galilee* The 
Baptism of the Holy Ghost had not yet 
taken place* It was to occur in Jerusalem* 
The Savior's command was that they 
should tarry there for it* And yet, when 
that wonderful blessing took place, only 
one hundred and twenty of the five hun- 
dred were present* Three hundred 
and eighty did not or would not find it 
convenient to leave their employments and 
homes and wait for the promise of the 
Father* 

It is simply heartbreaking to a faithful 
pastor to see the sifting process going on in 
his congregation for a single year* Some 
fall away under a spiritual sermon* Some 
become angry over frequent collections* 
Others find objections to the length or free- 
dom of the services* Still others fall away 
during the protracted meeting* And so 
the separation steadily goes on like a divid- 
ing current* 

The same sifting is seen taking place in 
what is called the Holiness Movement* 
Some follow men rather than Christ ; some 
switch off on non-essential doctrines ; some 
backslide under persecution; some are 
cowed and others blarneyed into silence; 
while still others take up with erroneous 
teaching, get side-tracked, and then off the 



32 THE SIFTING OF GIDEON'S ARMY. 

tracks down the hill, in the woods, with the 
locomotive on its back and wheels still 
going, but getting nowhere* 

It is an experience never to be forgotten 
to revisit the scene of a great revival a year 
or so afterwards^ It would take fifty police- 
men and a board of detectives to find the 
original company and get them together 
again* And, even if the physical reassem- 
bling were possible, other things far more 
important have vanished in the way of 
faith, love, brotherly kindness and godliness 
never to return* No amount of preachings 
praying and singing seem to be able to 
restore the glow and glory or reproduce 
former scenes of grace, together with the 
tremendous conviction as well as power 
which rested upon congregation and com- 
munity* Some have had their feeling hurt, 
some are mad, some have '' modified their 
views^^^ some have gone into 'Meeper 
truths/^^ as they call them ; some are writ- 
ing, talking and preaching about ^' deeper 
deaths,^^ and thereby have discounted the 
doctrine and experience of entire sanctifica- 
tion, which the Bible uplifts as the crown- 
ing work of grace; some have grossly 
sinned; and so, in different ways^ the 
blessed^ beautiful, glorious work of other 
days has been smitten^ scattered, and^ in 



THE SIFTING OF GIDEON'S ARMY. 33 

some places to human eyes, utterly wiped 
out* 

The writer has in recollection a town 
where God granted him a most pow- 
erful revival* In ten days five preach- 
ers and over one hundred members of the 
church had been sanctified and a number 
converted* The community was pro- 
foundly moved* The Presiding Elder and 
Official Board fought in vain* The Spirit 
of God gave victory over every kind of op- 
position^ and the church was a daily scene 
of power, praise, liberty and salvation. 

A few months after another meeting was 
held* An Evangelist came who taught 
and encouraged Come-out-ism* 

The sermons were filled with scathing 
abuse of the church* It seemed to be the 
signal for the incoming of every discordant 
and dividing spirit* Two of the preachers 
changed their views, one returning to his 
pipe and the other committing a crime* 
Errors crept in* Bickerings sprang up* 
Fanaticism showed its face* Open Sin 
re-enscribed its name on the register for 
rooms and the Devil sent in his card* The 
result of it all was that to-day there is 
scarcely a deader place, religiously, than 
the community of which we have just 
written* 

This case, and other instances of '^ a fall- 



34 THE SIFTING OF GIDEON'S ARMY. 

ing away/^ are no disproof of the doctrine 
of holiness^ but are illustrations of the 
weakness of human nature and the power 
of the devil in this world over even good 
people^ 

We can imagine how Christ^s heart was 
torn when He witnessed the wholesale de- 
partures and desertions from HimselL 

One one occasion He said: ^^ Were there 
not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? ^^ 
And so great was the defection among His 
followers that He asked the twelve if they 
were going also* Peter^ replying for them, 
said ^^ No/^ And yet it was not long after 
that that the Saviour listened to the sound 
of these same disciples' feet as they fled 
down the road, leaving Him in the hands 
of His enemies* 

No, the thinning out and falling away in 
any case is no reflection on the divine grace 
and truth, whether of doctrine or experience; 
but is a revelation of the power of the Sift- 
ing Process when applied to poor humanity* 
Let every man be a liar, Christ is true ; al- 
ways has been and always will be* He is 
the same yesterday, to-day and forever* 



THE THREE HUNDRED^ 




[HE people of Israel might well 
have been discouraged at the 
sight of the rapid melting away 
of Gideon^s army if they had 
not had to steady and gladden 
them the spectacle of the faithful ^^ three 
hundred ^^ who would not leave the field, 
but stood true to God and their leader in 
face of everything* 

And so we might well be downcast over^ 
the coldness, indSference, backsliding, side- 
tracking and actual derailment that we see 
taking place in so many different directions, 
if we did not observe just as unmistakably 
the faithfulness of Christian individuals 
and the steadfastness of those little bands 
of true and tried ones who survive and re- 
main after every revival, no matter what 
stand the community takes or how many 
of the congregation grow cold and go back 
to the worlds 

These are members of the ^^ Three 
Hundred Brotherhood/^ who never stop to 
count numbers or consider the magnitude 
di the opposition, but simply ask what is 

35 



36 THE THREE HUNDRED. 

right, and then stand or go forward just 
as God directs* 

We may say what we will about all 
men being the same and all souls being 
alike^ In one sense they are equally 
precious in their immortality, but, after that, 
there is a marvelous difference* One man 
is worth more to the cause of God than 
another* One person has more magnetism, 
influence and aggressiveness than another* 
One individual has often done what a 
whole congregation was not able to per- 
form* Now, when, in addition to these 
natural powers, the man is filled with the 
Holy Ghost, the Bible itself declares the 
spiritual rank or ratio in the statement that 
one is equal to a thousand* 

The ^^ Three Hundred ^^ of Gideon did 
easily what the fearful *^ twenty-two thou- 
sand,^^ who departed in a hurry for home^ 
could not possibly have done* 

Many hundreds of years have passed 
away since that time, but the Three 
Hundred still remain* The Brotherhood 
has been perpetuated* Their spiritual pos- 
terity lives after them* 

The tenth leper who returned to give 
thanks to Christ for his healing was a 
member of this mystic devoted band* The 
one hundred and twenty who took time to 
leave farm, shop and fishing-boat and wait 



THE THREE HUNDRED. yi 

for the Baptism with the Holy Ghost in 
Jerusalem belonged to this blessed Frater- 
nity of the wholly consecrated^ 

John and Peter, lingering in the court- 
yard when Jesus was being tried and 
scourged, and Paul and Silas, singing and 
praising with bloody backs in a midnight 
prison, were captains in that noble com- 
pany of the Three Hundred that is seen in 
every age and country, no matter who is 
the king nor how the law reads, whether 
for or against them* 

As seen down to the present time the 
Three Hundred is a band of faithful souls 
who cannot be driven from truth and duty 
nor coaxed or sopped into compromise and 
sin. Men may come and men may go, 
but they keep on forever. 

The writer, in common with other 
Evangelists and pastors, has seen much of 
his work scattered and destroyed; but, 
with them, he can also say that he never 
revisited a place where there had been a 
genuine revival but he would find a band 
of men and women, a little company of 
faithful ones, who had weathered the 
storm, outlived the pestilence, survived 
the persecution, remained firm in the fall- 
ing away and kept their hearts like a 
watered garden in the midst of general 
spiritual drought and deadness. 



38 THE THREE HUNDRED. 

Such spectacles prove the truth of the 
doctrine^ the genuineness ot the experience 
of holiness and the possibility of human 
faithfulness under any and all kind of ad- 
verse conditions, provided Christ is allowed 
to remain in the heart* 

So these true and tried individuals, these 
faithful little bands, these struggling small 
companies of Holiness people become a text 
and sermon, as well as an inspiration be- 
sides, to all who are doubting, hesitating, 
reeling and ready to falU They demon- 
strate by their lives that what they have 
stood and done we can stand and do* If 
they can endure and survive the shock of 
temptation, the loneliness of a devoted 
Christian life, the venom of slander, the 
laugh of ridicule and the blow of misrepre- 
sentation and hate, — then all of us can do 
the same* The living illustration becomes 
then an appeal to arise, move against the 
walled cities and possess the landl 

In conclusion^ we thank God for Israelis 
^^ Seven Thousand,^^ for Gideon's ^* Three 
Hundred,^' for Pentecost's ^^ One Hundred 
and Twenty '' and for all the faithful fol- 
lowers of Christ to-day, whether they reach 
the number of hundreds in a great City 
Tabernacle, dedicated to Full Salvation, or 
are a despised little Corporal's Guard wor- 
shipping in a dingy mission room or hall^ 



THE THREE HUNDRED. 39 

or whether the ^* Three Hundred ^^ is seen 
sifted down to the solitary individual living 
the life of holiness alone in a cold fashion- 
able church or in the midst of an unsym- 
pathetict worldly family circle* 

God be thanked for the Three Hundred, 
and, above all, for that Spirit of Grace and 
Truth who calls out the Three Hundred 
from the great ranks and bodies of men 
and causes them to stand true to God and 
themselves in the face of all the opposing 
thousands and millions of earth* 




THE MDDIANITISH TENT^ 




I HE Lord is exceedingly pitiful 
and kind to His servants* He 
is mindful of the failingbody and 
the sinking heart* He steps in 
at critical times and shows the 
divine omniscience as well as love in sud- 
den reliefs and assistances that came, as His 
people afterward declare in commenting 
upon them, just at the very moment most 
needed* So the Lord finds the despondent 
Elijah under the Juniper Tree, diagnoses 
the case, sees that an exhausted body has 
much to do with the prophet^s discourage- 
ment, and so sends an angel to prepare him 
a meal, lets his tired servant go to sleep, 
wakes him up to eat a second time and then 
sends him on his way to duty* The man 
had asked for death and the Lord sent him 
a breakfast and an angel to cook it* The 
whole scene translated into language meant, 
^^Live and not die/' 

The same observant God knew that 
Gideon's army, now reduced to three hun- 
dred, looked so diminutive and incapable in 
comparison with the black masses of the 



40 



THE MIDIANITISH TENT. 41 

Midianites that were covering the hills and 
choking the valleys, that He had to do 
something to rally, cheer and strengthen 
the drooping heart of His servant. So He 
said to him: 

*^If thou fear, go thou with Phurah, 
thy servant, down to the host and thou 
shalt hear what they say; and afterwards 
shall thine hands be strengthened/^ 

Drawing near one of the tents in the 
darkness, Gideon, crouching in the gloom, 
heard a soldier talking to another in the 
night. He was telling him a dream which 
had greatly troubled him. He said that he 
saw a cake of barley bread tumble into the 
host of Midian, smite a tent and knock it 
flat» Whereupon his aroused companion 
said : *'This is nothing else save the sword 
of Gideon — for into his hand hath God de- 
livered Midian and all the host/^ 

One can imagine the profound effect this 
remarkable speech must have made upon 
the listening warrior outside in the shadows 
of the night. Who wonders the Bible 
says that ** he worshipped ;^^ that he returned 
to his little army and said^ ^' Arise, for the 
Lord hath delivered into your hands the 
host of Midian ?'' 

The whole scene is full of significance 
and suggestion* The talk in the Midianit- 
ish tent is still going on, still overheard and. 



42 THE MIDIANITISH TENT. 

to this day, still a great factor in the success 
and victories of God's people. Many of 
us are permitted to go down and hear what 
our foes are saying* And, to our amaze- 
ment, we have discovered again and again 
that they recognized God's possession of 
our lives, realized our full strength and were 
themselves already defeated in heart. 

We have overheard the talk in the tents 
of the world and found that, in spite of 
their swarming numbers, sounding trum- 
pets, gay processions and flashing accoutre- 
ments, that sinners are anxious, disquieted 
and miserable* With all their bluster and 
show they confess that they rush to every 

!)lace of amusement to drown thought and 
orget care; that they drink, revel and travel, 
not only to get rid of heart burdens, but to 
obtain deliverance from themselves. They 
are also overheard to say that their plans, 
hopes and ambitions have been failures, 
that they are disappointed in life and that 
the Christian course is the best for any- 
one and everyone. 

We never heard such admissions, but, 
like Gideon, we worshipped and felt our 
hands and hearts strengthened for mightier 
achievements for Christ and His blessed 
cause. 

- The Midianite Tent is found in the 
ranks of Formal Worship* Such formal- 



THE MIDIANITISH TENT. 4S 

ists affect to be satisfied with stately 
ceremonies and declare against all 
'^ excitement,'^ as they call it, in the re- 
ligious Iife» 

On a certain occasion hundreds of this 
class of people, cultured, intellectual and 
respectable every way, were gathered in 
one of their annual ecclesiastical-social as- 
semblies* Among the groups was one 
composed of several of the very foremost 
of the church* They were discussing a 
neighboring congregation which enjoyed 
and was pressing the blessing of holiness* 
These men were in the famous Midianitish 
Tent, and one, speaking to another, said, 
^^They may not suit our ideas, but one 
thing is certain, that God is with them and 
they are getting people saved at all of their 
services/' 

A heartsick follower of the Lord, sitting 
near, overheard the words, worshipped 
God, returned to the company to which 
he belonged and said to them, in sub- 
stance : ** Arise, for God will give us the 
land/' 

A Bishop was addressing the class for 
admission into conference, on Saturday 
morning, when he said to the row c.f 
young ministers before him: ^^From my 
soul I pity a preacher who has to stand 
before persons in his congregation who 



44 THE MIDIANITISH TENT. 

have a deeper religious experience than 
himself/' 

There were some in the audience that 
day who had been abused and ridiculed 
unmercifully for claiming the blessing of 
heart purity^ As this Bishop^ who was 
not a believer in the second work of grace^ 
uttered the words mentioned above they 
felt that a whisper had floated out 
from the Midianitish Tent and it had 
made them wonderfully stronger for having 
been heard. 

Time would fail to enumerate the in- 
stances in the lives of our readers when, 
tempted to disparage one's own self and 
work and to magnify out of all truthful 
proportion the opposition of men and the 
influence of devils, God would in someway 
bring the Midianitish Tent around, and lol 
such confessions were heard of felt weak- 
ness, such anticipations breathed of coming 
defeat, such commendations spoken of the 
supposedly absent man or men and their 
work as to fairly electrify the drooping 
spirit and send the now enthused soul back 
with redoubled energy and courage to the 
field of conflict and duty, 
^ The writer of these lines makes humble 
as well as grateful acknowledgments to 
God for the power for good over his life of 
the Midianitish Tent. He rejoices and 



THE MIDIANITISH TENT. 45 

praises God for the miracle of the wet fleece^ 
and for the words ^* I will be with thee ;^^ 
but he has also abundant cause for thanks- 
giving for the whispers which the Lord has 
allowed to come wafted in the most unex- 
pected way through the night to his ears 
from the tabernacles and tent&of Midian. 




THE WEAPONLESS BATTALION^ 




?T is noticeable that the Three 
Hundred went into the battle 
against Midian without a single 
instrument of war* There is 
no mention made of their hav- 
ing anything in their hands but pitchers, 
lamps and trumpets, and none of these are 
considered military weapons by any country 
or in any age» 

While it may seem that later the com- 
pany had swords and spears, yet, if it was 
so, they must have taken them from the 
hands of the slain Midianites or as they 
found them scattered by the fugitives along 
the road and over the plain^ 

The point we make is that they went 
forth to battle and achieved a stupendous 
victory without the use of sword, javelin, 
battle-axe or any engine of war* 

It requires some Christians quite a time 
to learn this wonderful secret, that in the 
holy life we need no carnal weapons for 
attack or defence* 

We are apt to enter Canaan with the 
knowledge and customs of Egypt and the 

46 



THE WEAPONLESS BATTALION. 47 

Wilderness still clinging to us, and so we 
repose for awhile great measures of confi- 
dence in the bow and arrow and the horse 
and chariots As the Israelites never 
dreamed of walls falling down before a 
shout and armies vanquished by harp play- 
ing and singing, so we enter upon the life 
of holiness with lingering beliefs in the 
power and efficiency of great arguments, 
scathing articles, stinging repartees and 
severe retaliation, with all other human 
and carnal methods which we think neces- 
sary to protect ourselves, advance God's 
cause and bring confusion to the ranks of 
His and our enemies. 

It grows with an increasing wonder upon 
the spiritual man that the success he craves 
does not come, and never will come, by the 
use of carnal weapons* Little by little the 
repeated statements of the Bible, and con- 
tinually fulfilled before his eyes, settles in 
the form of a sweet and strong persuasion 
of the heart that he is perfectly safe in God 
and can be nothing but a victor over every 
kind of foe so long as he remains in God* 

Hence it is that genuinely godly people are 
not upset by attacks of tongue and pen, 
and go on in their work without rusning 
before the public in self-defence or with 
measures of retaliation* 

It is perfectly marvelous to see how God 



48 THE WEAPONLESS BATTALION. 

can and does defend His own* Has he 
pledged Himself to do so* He has said, 
^^No weapon formed against thee shall 
prosper/^ The word ^Meliver^^ is con- 
stantly used in regard to the divine rescue 
of soul and body from the hands of men 
and devils* 

That is a remarkable speech of Christ 
where He declares that ^^They who live 
by the sword shall perish by the sword*'^ 
This saying can be legitimately lifted from 
the military world and applied to those 
who are always contending, snapping, 
snarling, criminating, insinuating, slander- 
ing and abusing their fellow beings* They 
will go down by just such weapons as they 
have pitilessly used on others* 

A still more wonderful utterance is to be 
found in the Psalms in the words, ^^ Mine 
eyes are ever toward the Lord ; therefore 
shall He deliver my feet from the net*^^ 

Here is a man who has had laid for him 
all kinds of traps, pitfalls and engines of 
cruelty and destruction* Instead of study- 
ing the topography of the country, securing 
a guide, taking a stick and probing the 
ground before him, the assailed individual 
turns his gaze upward and fixes his eyes 
on the Lord* He is not looking at his 
own feet nor watching the dangerous 
ground, but contemplating the God of 



THE WEAPONLESS BATTALION. 49 

Heaven* He acts as if he had no feet to 
pfuard or as if there was no danger before 
him* 

The whole proceeding appears foolish 
and even suicidal to the careful^ calcu- 
lating, prudent man of the world; and yet 
the highest wisdom, the divinest philosophy- 
is in the whole course. The argument is, 
because my whole attention is given to 
God, my love, thought, labor, life, all fixed 
upon Him; ^UhereforeP' will He devote 
His observation, love and power upon me* 
As our eyes are turned toward His face. 
His eyes are directed toward our feet* We 
have committed our all to Him, and He 
will save us from every evil word and 
work, from every false friend and open foe, 
and, in a word, from every pit that may be 
dug for our steps before our unobservant 
vision* Our eyes are on Him and His 
eyes are on us* What need of sword and 
cannon, of horses and chariots? What 
necessity for cuts and slaps, for crimination 
and recrimination, for explanation and re- 
taliation? If we have elevated God as 
supreme in our hearts and lives. He will 
elevate us* ^*And now,^' says David, 
^^ shall mine head be lifted up above all 



mine enemies.'^ 



We never knew a man who was a 
dweller in the Canaan life to forget these 



50 THE WEAPONLESS BATTALION. 

things and take up carnal weapons but 
would realize immediate loss in his soul 
and get worsted in his encounters with 
men. It was God^s way of reminding him 
that he must not trust in the bow or spear 
nor go down to Egypt for help, nor hire 
armies from Syria^ The reassuring word 
is, *^ The Lord is my defence* The Lord 
is my shield and buckler. The Lord is 
my fortress and deliverer; my buckler and 
the Lord of my salvation and my high 
tower/' 

Recently, at a meeting, we heard a 
preacher confess to having lost the blessing 
of sanctification. His explanation was that 
he had been fearfully persecuted, and, before 
he knew it, he had taken up arms in self- 
defence, got to striking back, and so lost 
the sweetness and power, and, finally, the 
whole blessing of sanctification. 

Mr. Wesley was advised once to defend 
himself from certain attacks. His reply 
was that he was perfectly confident that 
the God, who had taken care of him thus 
far, could also preserve his reputation. 
History has thoroughly vindicated the 
truth of his statement* 

Numbers of times the writer has started 
to answer attacks of various kinds made 
upon him by tongue and pen, and where 
he could easily have vindicated himself, 



THE WEAPONLESS BATTALION. 51 

when suddenly the recollection of his con- 
secration would come back to him, the 
memory of a blessed morning when he had 
laid everything on the altar, family and 
friends, past and future, appointments and 
reputation, and took God to be his judge, 
defender and rewarder in all things* The 
single swift thought of that day would 
cause the pen to be laid aside, the sword 
fall quickly into its scabbard, the chariot 
sent back under the shed and the horses 
of war returned in haste to Egypt* 

God Himself is the best defence of the 
Christian* His Word says that He will 
show Himself strong in behalf of those 
who are perfect in heart, and that if our 
ways please Him He will make our ene- 
mies to be at peace with us, and, better 
than all, that all things shall be made to 
work together for our good if we but love 
Him. 




THE STRANGE INSTRUMENTS 
OF GOa 




[OTHING scarcely is more re- 
markable than the character 
of the agencies and instrumen- 
talities employed by the Al- 
mighty for the accomplishment 
of his purposes among men. 

In their selection the Lord sees to it that 
their very nature will reveal the power back 
of them. The manifest inadequacy of the 
thing or person used is bound to direct the 
eye and thought of the observer to God^ 
and so, of course, the glory and praise 
travel in the right direction. 

In sending a man to talk to a great king 
and lead a vast body of captive people out 
from bondage earthly wisdom would have 
selected a golden-tongued orator or a re- 
nowned warrior with a sword rivaling that 
of Richard Couer de Lion or Saladin, the 
Arabian prince* Instead of this God 
chose a man slow of speech, and, for a 
wand of authority, let him carry to the 
court and palace of Pharoah a rod which 



5* 



THE STRANGE INSTRUMENTS OF GOD. 53 

Moses himself had cut out of a thicket to 
guide and protect his flockst 

In another instance horns were used to 
knock down the walls of a city; an ox- 
goad to secure a nation^s deliverance from 
bondage; handkerchiefs to carry health to 
the sick ; while a hammer and nail in a 
woman's hand got rid of a great enemy 
of Israel whom the army had been power- 
less to capture and destroy^ 

In the victory God proposed giving to 
Gideon, trumpets, lamps and pitchers were 
to be used* If the Midianites could have 
seen the odd weapons beforehand what 
laughter and scorn would have been oc- 
casioned^ How strange, even to-day, ap-'^ 
pears the peculiar panoply of the ^* Three 
Hundred/' It must have been a great trial 
of faith to the men themselves as they 
marched through the night to their posts 
with a trumpet in one hand and a pitcher 
containing a burning lamp in the other* But 
God had so commanded through Gideon, 
and they obeyed^ 

The Lord has never ceased to work 
wonders after the same manner* He uses 
the ordinary means, but again and again 
breaks in with instrumentalities that are 
extraordinary because of their evident in- 
adequacy* 

Let the reader turn to First Corinthians 



54 THE STRANGE INSTRUMENTS OF GOD. 

and read in the first chapter the kind of men 
God has taken to confound the world and 
achieve stupendous victories for the truth, 
and he is bound to be impressed and 
amazed* Paul says ^^God hath chosen the 
foolish things of the world to confound the 
wise; and God hath chosen the weak 
things of the world to confound the things 
which are mighty ; and base things of the 
world, and things which are despised, hath 
God chosen, yea, and things which are not, 
to bring to naught things that are ; that no 
flesh should glory in His presence/' 

Over and over have we seen the Spirit 
of God resting upon and using a man who 
was uncouth, illiterate, obscure, unknown, 
but who was devout and completely given 
up to the will of Heaven* We have beheld 
such men achieve victories and secure 
wonderful results where other individuals 
with scholarship, eloquence and high posi- 
tion had utterly failed* It was Gideon's 
humble soldiers and weapons all over again* 

Again we have seen the pitchers, lamps 
and trumpets lifted and waved before the 
eyes of the world, and used of God to-day, 
in a song, a shout, a cry, an amen, a man- 
nerism, a lisp, a gesture and other simple 
things, to accomplish what could not be 
done or was not done by practiced anthems, 
labored discourses and learned volumes* 



THE STRANGE INSTRUMENTS OF GOD 55 

According to old-time methods an ordinary 
lamp in a homely pitcher sent a panic to 
the heart of a great congregation* A piece 
of common goods brought health to a big 
church or community. There was a plain- 
looking hammer in the pulpit that day and 
not much was expected, but God supplied 
the nail, and the man struck the truth and 
drove conviction through head and heart 
and fastened his hearers to the altar and to 
the floor* 

Again, we have seen a mere stick of a 
man as to outward polish or inward gifts* 
He was no scholar, had no remarkable 
natural endowments, but was endued with 
the Holy Ghost; and we have noticed 
that when he lifted his voice in prayer, tes- 
timony, song or preaching, somehow the 
fire fell and ran along among the people as 
in the days of Moses* Let it not be supposed 
that the Lord despises and discounts great 
natural gifts, intellectual ability and acquisi- 
tions of knowledge* The trouble is that 
most of such endowed people will not allow 
God to use them* Then another difficulty 
is that, even when such individuals are 
surrendered to the Lord^s will and service, 
outsiders get the idea that their success and 
influence springs from their wisdom and 
eloquence* Hence it is that God has to break 
in with his lowly human trumpets, lamps 



56 THE STRANGE INSTRUMENTS OF GOD. 

and pitchers and places His treasure in 
earthen vessels^ in order to bring men 
to their senses^ direct all eyes to heaven 
and show to the world that the excellency 
of the power is not of man but all of God* 




xn- 

^^EVERY MAN STCXDD IN HIS 
PLACE/' 




[HE above sentence is a simple 
one and, doubtless, overlooked 
by many in reading the history 
of Gideon's devoted band, but 
it is not the less wonderfuL 
The faithfulness, obedience and courage 
contained in that single line meant every- 
thing in that famous night conflict, and 
means as much to-day* 

In order to surround the vast camp of 
the Midianites, Gideon's Three Hundred 
could not be deployed in compact ranks, 
but had to stand far apart* This meant 
loneliness and called for individual faithful- 
ness and personal bravery* 

The night had settled, and, evidently, it 
was a dark one; a great host was stretched 
out before these men; each man had a 
thousand of the enemy upon his hand; and 
yet, in face of the tremendous odds, the 
natural apprehensions which struggled in 
their breasts, they were true and every 
man stood in his place* 
May we all learn the lesson* There is 

57 



58 EVERY MAN STOOD IN HIS PLACE. 

a post of duty for each one of us* God^s 
Spirit and Providence will lead us to it and 
the Lord would have us to remain there. 
To leave such a divine appointment and 
trust is not only disastrous to our own 
spiritual life^ but it is as direful in its effect 
upon others* We are placed there for a 
blessed purpose* God has need for us at 
that point* Somebody is to be cheered, 
helped and delivered by our consecrated 
lives* Some evil is to be met and put down 
by us* An attack is to be made upon sin 
wherever it is and the armies of the aliens 
put to flight* 

Happy for the man and happy for the 
world when God can find his servant 
always at the post of duty; that when 
he needs his voice, influence and life and 
turns to lay His hand upon him, he is 
there waiting for the touch and listening for 
the call* 

We wonder how many Christian parents 
there are who are not in their place in re- 
gard to the duty of family worship* Then 
there are empty pews in the church and 
vacant seats in the prayer-meeting and 
protracted meeting that declare the same 
fact* Besides this, there are men in the 
practice of law and medicine and still others 
in the store and on the farm who ought to 
be preachers and missionaries* In a word, 



EVERY MAN STOOD IN HIS PLACE. 59 

the man in not in his place and this means 
loss to the cause of God, absence of bless- 
ing to the human race and trouble and 
judgment to the faithless one himselL 

The place God calls us to fill is not 
always pleasant. It is a station sometimes 
where darkness abounds, loneliness is felt, 
the majority is against us, and the prospect, 
from a human standpoint, anything but 
cheerful, promising and reassuring. 

And yet right there the Lord has placed 
some who read these lines — and right there 
he wants them to remain. He knows our 
frame and just how much we can endure. 
As the Captain of the Guard He is making 
continual rounds. When He comes to 
visit the lonely vidette, or relieve by change 
of post or circumstance, or promote to 
Heaven itself, may He find us, as was said 
of Gideon^s Band, each one standing faith- 
ful and true in his own place. 




THE BATTLE AND VICTORY^ 




WHOEVER heard or read of 
such a battle as is here related 
in the Bible, where three hun- 
dred men actually surrounded 
or encircled a vast army, taking 
^th them as weapons of conquest such 
peaceful, harmless instruments as pitchers^ 
lamps and trumpets ? 

At a given signal from Gideon every 
man blew his trumpet, broke his pitcher, 
waved his lamp and shouted, ^^The sword 
of the Lord and of Gideon !^^ This was 
all, and anyone can see it was perfectly 
inadequate in itself to accomplish what 
was seen in an immediate, overwhelming 
victory* 

Of course a good deal can be said about 
the panic created by the sudden blare of 
three hundred trumpets, the crash of as 
many pitchers and the flash of long lines of 
lights which seemed to burst out of the 
darkness on all sides* 

But a panic will not make a fleeing 
army hew itself to pieces; and but for 
God the multitude of frightened, maddened 
Midianites would have run over Gideon^s 



60 



THE BATTLE AND VICTORY. 6i 

little company and trampled that body out 
of existence^ even as a stampeded herd of 
buffalo grinds a plain into powder, sweep- 
ing all before its wild, destructive flight,, 
and a mob, in its mad rush under alarm, 
has trod hundreds of people to deaths 

God was in the awful fear that fell upon 
the Midianites, and He was in it to so 
guide and direct the frantic rush that the 
three hundred escaped all harm, while 
their adversaries drew their swords and 
slew one another on every hand* 

The ordinary retreat of an army is a re- 
markable spectacle, while one conducted 
under fire is simply dreadfuL Even to read 
of the evacuation of Moscow by the French 
army and their flight through Russia is 
so full of horror that it never can be for- 
gotten* But the stampede of the Midianites 
was especially shocking in that, while they 
fled, they kept wounding, striking down 
and killing one another, until over one 
hundred thousand corpses lined the roads 
and covered the fields* 

This was a greater fatality than the loss 
sustained at Mannasseh, Gettysburg, 
Chickamauga, Shiloh, Corinth and Freder- 
icksburg, six of the largest battles of the 
Civil Wan 

The truth taught in this occurrence is 
that God can set the enemies of His people 



62 THE BATTLE AND VICTORY. 

fighting among themselves, a fact not only 
shown in the Bible, but proved in history 
and recognized in our own immediate gen- 
eration and community* 

We have all seen combinations and 
coalitions formed against devoted servants 
of God, and soon after beheld them torn 
and divided with internal discords, while 
the hands once raised in wrath and violence 
against the Lord^s people were now turned 
in bitterness and cruelty against each other* 

We have gone down among the adver- 
saries of Holiness and found anything but 
agreement and peace among them* Their 
tongues slash, their pens puncture and 
their hands wound one another. 

There is also discord in the columns of 
formal and stately ecclesiasticisms* There 
is war between the different theologies, 
creeds and catechisms* There is bitter 
rivalry between the church on the street 
and the one located on the avenue. 

The strife is seen continued in the ranks 
of the people who sidetrack on some false 
conception of duty or misunderstanding of 
the Bible or religious experience* Such se- 
ceding bodies always get in time to fighting 
among themselves, and then the public is 
treated to a spectacle of divisions and sub- 
divisions until the heart sickens and the 
mathematical faculty fairly reels* 



THE BATTLE AND VICTORY. 63 

The only unity existing in the great 
battle against the Midianiteswas inGideon^s 
Band^ That harmony and unification was 
the great factor in God^s hands of securing 
the triumph and of pressing the victory to 
the very end» 

We seem slow to learn Bible teaching 
and backward in understanding the Spirit; 
but nothing has been more plainly taught 
by the Lord than that He will not go out to 
battle with a company of people who are 
fighting among themselves* This fact 
alone is sufficient to justify the prediction of 
the coming defeat and failure of all striving 
bands and bodies* The house divided 
against itself cannot stand; and they 
who use the sword shall perish by the 
sword* 

The trumpet stands for testimony and 
the lamp represents the shining life* The 
two must go together if we would obtain 
victory over the hosts of evil against us. 
The combination of the two was essential 
the night of Gideon^s battle, and is as 
vitally necessary to-day* The testimony 
and life must be seen together in blessed 
agreement and fellowship* The one with- 
out the other would be like the lamp with- 
out the trumpet, or the trumpet without the 
lamp, when the charge was made on the 
Midianites* It was the two coming together 



64 THE BATTLE AND VICTORY. 

which brought the confusion, fright, panic, 
flight and victory^ 

As for the broken pitchers, they stand 
for these human vessels of ours which go 
down under the fatigue, exhaustion, labors 
and wounds that come in the service and 
the battles of the Lord* The lamp is 
plainly seen when the pitcher is broken* 
That means that, through our toils, suffer- 
ings and death, the flame of Truth and the 
light of experience in us will flash forth all 
the more clearly and powerfully* The 
self-denials, the cross-bearing, the daily 
dying, the being ground to pieces for the 
truth, humanity and Christ^s sake, are 
marvelous crevices and apertures for the 
glory of God in us to shine through* And 
it does gleam forth and men see it: the 
pitcher is broken, but the lamp is thereby 
made visible, the light flashes forth, con- 
viction is awakened, salvation flows and 
victory comes. 




XIV- 
THE MEN OF NAPHTALL 




?N the seventh chapter and 
twenty-third verse of the Book 
of Judges we read that when 
Gideon^ with his chosen band 
had defeated theMidianitesand 
the scattered remnants of that army were 
fleeing for their lives^ that then the men of 
'^Naphtalit Asher and Mannasseh gathered 
themselves together and pursued after the 
Midianites/' 

It is difficult to read this without a smile, 
because it is so like poor^ fallen human na- 
ture, and as we see it still to-day* 

These were the very people who, through 
fear of the Midianitish host, had left the 
battlefield and gone home* But now that 
the enemy had been defeated and was in 
full retreat, who so bold as the men of 
Naphtali ! Here they come ! Make way 
for them! Look how they charge! Did 
anyone one ever see the like ? How bold 
they are I How they sweep everything be- 
fore them ! How they press close upon the 
fugitives who were already doing their best 
to get away ! 

65 



66 THE MEN OF NAPHTALu 

Those wonderful men of war have long 
ago passed away, but they have left a 
numerous posterity behind them whom we 
cannot fail to recognize* 

As seen to-day the Naphtalites appear 
at church when a difficult protracted meet- 
ing has suddenly flowered into a glorious 
revivaL A faithful little band had held on 
to God through much surrounding indiffer- 
ence and opposition and prayed through and 
over trials of most heart-sickening nature; 
moreover, they were allowed to struggle on 
alone and unaided by hundreds of the mem- 
bership who were under as great obligation 
to obtain the moral and spiritual victory as 
themselves; but when the fire fell and the 
success of the meeting was unquestionable, 
here came the absentees in perfect droves to 
take part in the triumphs These modern 
men of Naphtali declared that they had 
faith all along that victory would come, and 
though they were not present at first in 
body, yet they were there in spirit from the 
beginning, etc., etc» 

The Tribe of Naphtali is seen again 
when a man succeeds in life* While the 
struggle was going on with him and in 
him to keep his head above the water, or his 
feet fixed on slippery ground, not a member 
of that remarkable tribe could be seen* 
The lonely struggler needed sympathy, 



THE MEN OF NAPHTALL 67 

friendship, affection or material help* He 
craved these things, sought for them, but 
did so in vain* At last the long deferred 
success came; victory perched on his banner, 
and everybody could see that the man had 
won in the great battle of life and was now 
rich or famous in some way, when lo! and 
behold! here came the Naphtalites marching 
down in crowds to meet the conqueror and 
offer help where none was needed* 

Yes indeed! They had always been his 
friends! They always said he would come 
out all right! They would knock anybody 
down who dared to say anything against 
him! 

Nor is this alU Some of them suddenly 
discovered that they were related to this life 
success; others named their babies after 
him; while still others claimed, with know- 
ing looks and nods of the head, that they 
had a great deal to do with the securing of 
the success and had also much to do with 
the making of the man himself* 

O these men of Naphtali, Asher and 
Mannasseh! These people who are miss- 
ing when we want help most and who turn 
up armed to the teeth when we have won 
the battle and need assistance now from 
nobody! Who has not seen them, laughed 
at them and grieved over them? And yet, 
no matter how the glaringly inconsistent 



68 THE MEN OF NAPHTALL 

life and the true character become evident 
to all^ yet, as a people, they continue to live 
and flourish, leading the van when the re- 
treat is sounded, bringing up the rear when 
the advance guard is fighting, plundering 
the wagon train when the victory is won 
and performing in tongue prodigies of valor 
when the war is all over and peace has 
been declared* 

We once heard it said of a preacher that 
he was invisible six days and incompre- 
hensible the seventh* The Naphtalite is 
equally remarkable* Invisible when needed; 
visible when not wanted; a soldier in time 
of peace; an absentee in time of war; a 
toiler when the harvest has been gathered; 
and the rest of the time a blusterer and 
braggadocio when he has nothing in the 
world to boast about* 




XV. 
THE HUMILITY OF GIDEON. 




^N little things the character of 
men is constantly revealed; 
the small actions of life being 
like crevices in a building 
through which is seen the 
lights furniture and inhabitants within^ 

In the war cry adopted by Gideon^ in the 
proper placing of the name of God^ the man^s 
self-distrust, his dependence upon God, in 
a word, his humility, are all clearly made 
manifest* The battle-cry was, ^^The 
sv/ord of the Lord and of Gideon/^ The 
Lord was put first, and he placed himself 
last. 

This is not the rule of procedure with 
very many of God^s people by any manner 
of means. As a young preacher we were 
much struck with letters written in the 
various ^^ Advocates'^ from the different 
stations and circuits, and it required quite 
a little while to understand them* They 
ran about as follows: 

'^Mf . Editor* — ^Whcn I was sent to this charge by 
the last Conference I found everythingf on the cir- 
cuit in a most lamentable condition* The church 

69 



70 THE HXJMlLrrY OF GE>EON. 

buildings needed repairs^ the parsonagfc was 
scarcely habitable^ the people would not come 
to the House of God^ quarrek and dissensions 
abounded and religion was at a low ebb* 

''But I at once took hold and went to worfc^ and 
the results are simply wonderfuL I have repaired 
two of the church buildings^ repainted the par- 
sonage and held meetings all over the work* I 
have received many accessions^ reorganized four 
Sunday-Schools and took in three new Sunday 
afternoon appointments* Nor is this all* Family 
altars have been raised, many reconciliations 
effected, the G>nference collections doubled, the 
preache/s salary paid in full and the whole work 
is on fire* Never in all its history has the circuit 
been so prosperous; but it cost me the hardest 
yearns work of my life to bring it about* 

'''ToGodbealltheglory*^^^ 

''I*M*A*HornbIower*^ 

The last sentence, ^^ To God be all the 
glory,^^ seemed to be a kind of afterthought 
with the brother* He came near forgetting 
that God had done anything at all, when 
suddenly it seemed to strike him that it 
would look better to acknowledge that God 
was present in the yearns work, and so the 
reluctant sentence, ^^To God be all the 
glory*'^ Different from Gideon^s words, 
the letter really read, ^^The sword of Myself 
and the lord*^^ 

The writer once heard a gentleman say 



THE HUMILITY OF GIDEON. 71 

that he knew a sprightly young man whose 
father took him into business with him, giv- 
ing him a fourth or fifth share of the profits* 
The sign in front of the store read, ^^ John 
Smith & Son/^ Needing to be repainted 
after a dusty season, it was taken down for 
repairs* The junior partner, at his own 
urgent request, was allowed to superintend 
the painting; when, to the astonishment of 
the father as he came down town next 
morning, the sign read, ^^ James Smith & 
Father/' 

Of course men would be ashamed to 
uplift such signs in the religious life, but 
their conversations, letters, spirit, manner 
and life itself plainly indicate that with them 
God is the junior member of the firm* 
The burden of their talk is not what the 
Lord did, but what a certain sermon ac- 
complished, their skill and judgment pre- 
vented and wise management and general 
ability effected* Then if all these wondrous 
doings appear in the form of a public bul- 
letin on the Chanticleer order, some con- 
scientious pangs left in the breast may 
occasion the lugging in at the very end of 
the report the modest, easily-overlooked 
sentence, ^^To God be all the glory!'' 

The great characters of the Bible were 
little in their own sight* Moses could not 
see why God had chosen him- Gideon 



72 THE HUMILITY OF GIDEON. 

had to have signs and miracles wrought in 
his sight before he could believe that he 
would be a mighty conqueror* The truly 
great are always simple^ natural, approach- 
able and gracious* Their very greatness 
enables them to behold merit in others and 
at the same time recognize their own de- 
ficiencies* 

The morally and mentally little man is 
dreadfully afraid of being overlooked, and 
so we behold on his part a swagger, pom- 
posity, and boastfulness, that, however im- 
pressive it may be to the ignorant and un- 
initiated, is disgusting to the discriminating 
and wise* 

We remember, as a boy, overlooking the 
quiet figure of a plainly-dressed general 
who commanded a corps of twenty thousand 
men, and being deeply impressed and awed 
by a third lieutenant, who, richly adorned 
in tinsel, brass buttons and plumes, paraded 
and sunned himself on a hotel gallery as a 
thing of beauty and a joy forever* 

It was some time before we discovered 
that the violet is in society as well as in the 
garden, and that the full head of wheat 
droops, and that the stalk does not stand 
as straight and as high as the one that has 
nothing upon it. 

Truly the meek and childlike spirit is 
lovely in all, but in none is it more so than 



^ THE HUMILITY OF GIDEON. 73 

with those who occupy high and exalted 
positions* 

If men were morally great who are 
officially and financially prominent this 
would be blessed for all; but^ unfortun- 
ately^ the two kinds of greatness are not 
often linked together* 

The rule is that the higher the position 
and office the more difficult it is to get on 
speaking and friendly terms with the in- 
dividual and the more certain are we to 
expect rebuffs* 

It is ten thousand millionfold easier to 
have audience with God, the Almighty 
King of the Universe, than to obtain a 
glance or word from men who are dressed 
in a little brief authority* 




THE MAGNANIMITY OF GIDEON. 




[HE word magnanimity is a 
compound from the Latin 
magnuSf great; and animus^ 
mind or soul; so that to be 
magnanimous is to be great- 
hearted, noble-spirited, large-souled* 

The characteristics of such a nature are 
found to command admiration and approval 
from their very moral excellence and supe- 
riority* The whole life is diametrically 
and eternally opposed to that spirit and 
conduct described under the word *^ little- 
ness/^ It cannot do what is called a low 
and contemptible thing. 

The truly magnanimous man could 
not stoop to take an advantage; could 
not retaliate; could not originate or 
circulate a slander ; and would be incapa- 
ble of doing anything in a spirit of mean- 
ness or revenge. Neither would such 
a character cherish unworthy suspicions of 
another; nor, under the guise of friendliness, 
lay verbal traps to bring about the humilia- 
tion of a brother* In a word, we cannot 



74 



THE MAGNANIMITY OF GIDEON 75 

conceive of a great-souled man doing any- 
thing little and despisable* 

One striking feature of soul or character 
is the readiness to overlook and forgive 
slights^ wrongs and injuries of different 
descriptions^ 

A second feature is the quickness to give 
credit to others for the merit they possess 
and works they have performed^ Such a 
man does more than this: he is willing to 
pass in silence over his own achievements 
and victories, and his commendation 
and praise be given to others who 
otherwise would have been overlooked*^ 
This is true greatness* This is magnani- 
mity itself* 

Gideon possessed this spirit in an abund- 
ant measure* It cropped out when he was 
in the flush of his wonderful victory over 
the Midianites, in the reply he made to the 
angry speech of the Ephraimites* It will 
be remembered that these last-named people 
did not join in the battle until Gideon had 
defeated the enemy and was driving them 
towards the Jordan* The tribe above 
mentioned then joined in the pursuit and 
killed the two Midianite leaders, Oreb and 
Zeeb* After the fight the Ephraimites 
chided Gideon very sharply about his fail- 
ure to send for them earlier; whereupon 
this great-minded leader of the three hun- 



76 THE MAGNANIMITY OF GIDEON. 

dred made one of the noblest speeches of his 
life in the words : ^^ What have I done now 
in comparison of you ? Is not the gleaning 
of the grapes of Ephraim better than the 
vintage of Abi-ezer ? God hath delivered 
into your hands the princes of Midian, 
Oreb and Zeeb ; and what was I able to do 
in comparison of you ? '^ 

It took a noble man to make this speech* 
A little character could not have uttered it* 
The two-by-four nature would have found 
it not only difficult, but impossible to divide 
honors, much less give the greater credit to 
anyone else than himselL 

Admiral Sampson found himself unable 
to state, in his dispatches to Washington 
City, that Schley had won the Santiago 
victory* Even preachers discover an un- 
willingness to give credit to others of their 
vocation for mighty sermons and mightier 
performances in the Christian life* Then 
men damn each other with faint praise* 
The fear with many seems to be that the 
stock of honor and glory is not enough to 
go around, and so they would appropriate 
all that can be had* 

We recently read two letters from the 
same writer, and which appeared in the 
same copy of the paper* In one the Evan- 
gelist gave a most glowing and flattering 
description of his own meeting, not sparing 



THE MAGNANIMITY OF GIDEON. 77 

certain adjectives and adverbs* In the other 
letter he referred to another EvangcIist^s 
meeting which he attended for several days^ 
and the reference was without a word of 
commendation^ but contained a blow in- 
stead; and then the writer passed on to 
speak of a second meeting of his own which 
he had begun, and which he proceeded to 
puff, and yet the revival services he ignored 
had resting upon them, from beginning to 
end, the favor and power of God* The 
composer of the two letters did not possess 
the magna anima* Had he met the 
Ephraimites, as did Gideon, he would have 
reversed the speech of that leader, and said: 
^*You do well, you men of Ephraim, ta 
worry and be mortified* You did almost 
nothing, while I did everything* You 
killed two men who were running and 
doing their best to get away, while I 
put a whole army to flight and slaugh- 
tered them by thousands* But your 
getting angry does not alter facts* You 
did simply nothing in comparison with 
me* 

Magnanimity is notably lacking in other 
instances and lives that we have not space 
to mention in this chapter* We have con- 
fined ourselves to its manifestation in 
Gideon in his giving praise to others rather 
than to himself, and, more than that,. 



78 THE MAGNANIMITY OF GIDEON. 

ascribing greater honor to them than he 
reserved for his own proneness and achieve- 
ments* 

The noble leader of Israel actually antici- 
pated, by his own lips, the words of Paul, 
and was *^ In honor preferring one another/^ 




XVIL 
THE SNARE OF GIDEON- 




[HE first man in the land 
was now Gideon* He was 
the conqueror of the enemies 
of his country and had been 
made Judge of IsraeU The 
blessing of God was upon him^ and he pos- 
sessed the favor, confidence and love of the 
people* And yet, in the face of all this 
honor and glory, we see the man going 
down under the double snare of gold and 
false worship* The fall brought not only 
trouble to himself, but evil to the nation, as 
a degenerate leader and corrupted religion 
are bound to bring woe to any people* 

In the very flush of his victory Gideon 
got his eyes fixed on certain golden orna- 
ments worn by the Ishmaelites, which rep- 
resented a vast fortune* And so he secured 
them* With the entrance of covetousness 
came idolatry, for the Bible declares that 
^^Covetousness is idolatry *^^ An image of 
worship was made out of a part of the gold 
and afterwards erected or set up in Ophrah ; 
and the Bible says that ^^aU Israel went 
thither a whoring after it*^^ After this, on 



79 



8o THE SNARE OF GIDEON. 

the death of Gideon^ the people worshipped 
Baalt one wrong step leading to others 
deeper, darker and more damnable* 

Why is it that so many great and useful 
men, before finishing their course on earth, 
will write, say or do something that, if it 
does not undo all their previous work, 
leaves some kind of blemish on the good 
name or fame, causing the wicked to laugh 
and the righteous to grieve ? 

The Bible tells of just such happenings 
in the lives of Saul, Samson, Balaam, 
David, Judas, Demas, Mark and a number 
of others^ 

History bears witness to the same melan- 
choly fact from John Calvin, who had a 
man burned at the stake on theological and 
doctrinal grounds, and to Aaron Burr, 
who, after a life of brilliant service, plotted 
the overthrow of his country* 

S* S» Prentiss, the gifted orator from 
Mississippi, fell back exhausted at the con- 
clusion of one of his most wonderful 
speeches, when a member of Congress 
leaped to his feet, bent over the prostrate 
man and shouted in his pallid face: ** Die, 
Prentiss, die I ^^ His idea was that the elo- 
quent speaker before him had reached the 
highest point of earthly success and glory, 
and should pass away thus at his very best* 

When we study the spiritual life, the 



THE SNARE OF GIDEON. 8i 

same character of facts confront us. Paul 
said to the Galalians: ^*Ye did run well, 
who did hinder you ?'' 

The ** hindrance/^ it is noticeable, came 
after the ^'running well/' The twofold 
snare of Gideon presented itself after his 
great victory* David's temptation drew 
nigh after he had performed some of the 
noblest acts of his life and composed a 
number of his sweetest Psalms* 

The teaching from these and many other 
scriptural instances is, that awful moral 
lapses and falls may take place after years 
of remarkable services and faithful living* 

An humble-spirited preacher is made a 
bishop and develops into an autocrat or 
pope. A gifted but lowly-hearted country 
boy enters the ministry, has success, gets 
his head turned, develops oratory, strives 
for popularity, and by-and-by a backslider 
in heart and life is in the pulpit giving an- 
nouncements and pounding the Bible* A 
faithful layman, entrusted with a large sum 
of money, is true for years, and then, in 
middle life, listens to the Tempter, and first 
uses, and, later, purloins sacred funds and 
flies from the country a disgraced man* 

Time would fail to tell of men who, after 
ten, twenty, thirty and forty years of cor- 
rect moral and even religious living, went 
down under some sudden or prolonged 



82 THE SNARE OF GIDEON. 

temptation, and got as far from God as they 
had been previously distant from the world 
and the DeviL 

The snares that trap and catch men are 
different ; but Satan, who seems to give no 
man up while he is living, finds some way 
by which to confuse, entangle, sidetrack 
and secure his downfall if it be possible* 

The snare in Gideon's case, as has been 
said, was gold ; with Samson and David, 
lust; with Saul, envy; with Balaam and 
Judas, money; with Demas, the love of 
this present world. 

To this day men are falling away from 
duty and God on account of these things. 
And because the Devil has had such suc- 
cess in the employment of these baited 
traps and flower-covered pitfalls, he is as 
persistent in his temptations these days as 
in former times. He knows the power of 
the snare and the weakness of the nature he 
has to deal with, and never seems to be 
discouraged. 

This is the reason that the Bible has so 
much to say about ^^Watching and Pray- 
ing;'' about working out one's salvation 
with fear and trembling; and utters the pecu- 
liarly solemn words, '^Wherefore let him 
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he 
fall.'' 

We have all known men who not only 



THE SNARE OF GIDEON. 83 

thought they stood^ but really did stand in 
grace and were used of God; and yet we 
have seen them sour^ grow bitter^ become 
envious^ backslide in heart, backslide in 
life and then lay around for years as help- 
less, useless and melancholy in appearance 
as the wrecks of ships thrown by a storm 
on the beach and left after that to whiten 
and fall to pieces as the days and months 
rolled by* 

God save us from the snare of Gideon 
and from those of Saul, Samson, David, 
Judas and Demas and from any and every 
other kind which the enemy of our souls 
would place in position to cripple and cap- 
ture us, and finally, to destroy and damn us, 
both soul and body, in hell forever* 




xvni- 

THE HNAL SCENE. 




[ HE writer of the Book of Judges 
says, in the conclusion of the 
eighth chapter, that Gideon 
^^ died in a good old age/' In 
another verse is the statement 
that as soon as Gideon was dead the 
^^ children of Israel turned again and went 
after Baal/' In Hebrews Paul says that 
''he died in the faith/' 

From these different passages we gather 
that the famous leader of the '' three hun- 
dred" must have repented of his error and 
got right with God, for it is said that '' he 
died in the faith/' 

Not only that, but his influence for good 
must have been re-established, for the in- 
stant he died, and not until he died, the 
people of Israel went after BaaL This 
teaches most unmistakably the restraining 
power of the man and the ascendancy for 
good he regained and which he then 
wielded until the hour of death* 

Not all men get back to God from their 
life-strayings, but when such wanderers do 
return, the coming home rejoices not only 

84 



THE FINAL SCENE. 85 

Heaven but every true child of God on 
earth* The more prominent and useful 
they were the sadder their lapse or fall is 
felt to be, and the deeper is the joy if they 
get back to salvation and usefulness* 

A man^s gifts and power for good will 
naturally make him a target for the DeviL 
In the Boer War, in South Africa, the best 
marksmen were stationed in tree-tops and 
upon lofty crags to pick off the English 
officers, and^ as a consequence, we read 
that the mortality among them was simply 
dreadfuL 

Satan knows that some men are worth 
more to God than others, and that their fall 
would mean more than that of those less 
prominent and successful ; and so he makes 
peculiar and persistent and violent attacks 
upon them* Death is said to love a shin- 
ing mark; and so does the great adversary* 
How he must gloat in entangling them in 
his toils on earth and seeing them bound 
in everlasting chains in hell. 

If such a character is wounded, but re- 
covers strength and power again, it natur- 
ally brings dismay to the Devil and a great 
joy and thankfulness to the people of God* 

But how much more blessed and inspir- 
ing it is to see a man faithful to God and 
truth and duty from the start to the finish 
of his career* It commends the cause of 



86 THE FINAL SCENE. 

God, commands respect, stimulates faith 
and brings in a great army of new volun- 
teers« 

David, Samson and Gideon went into 
sin and error before completing their course 
in life^ They were restored, and died in 
the faith ; but the blemish was left on their 
name and fame and the blot on the pages 
of their history* 

There were other characters like Job, 
Daniel, Joseph and Paul who never failed* 
They were true to God through trouble, 
temptation, worldliness and persecution* 
Heaven has long ago approved them* Nor 
is this all, for mankind itself, in reading of 
their trials and triumphs, their battles and 
victories, has also passed sentence and de- 
clared them to be the real heroes and victors 
of this world* Truly, it is better to be like 
this latter class than the former ; and we 
can be* 

The Scripture is faithful to warn us con- 
cerning the possibility of disastrous failure* 
^^Ye did run well, who did hinder you?'^ 
Again we have the passage, ^^I keep under 
my body and bring it into subjection, lest 
by any means, that I, after having preached 
the Gospel to others, may be a castaway; ^^ 
and stiU again, the solemn passage, ^^Let 
him who thinketh he standeth take heed 
lesthefafl/^ 



THE FINAL SCENE. 87 

The same Bible, however^ tells us that 
we need not falL The promise is that ^^He 
will keep us from falling;^^ that '^He is able 
to do for us exceeding abundant above all 
that we can ask or think;'^ while Paul 
adds, **\ dim. persuaded that He is able to 
keep that which I have committed unto 
Him until that day/^ 

It was a heart-stirring scene in the old- 
time days of the South to see all the slaves 
gather from the fields at dusk with their 
bags and baskets stuffed full and piled high 
with beautiful snow-white cotton* The 
laborers would stand or sit around in the 
shadows of the early night, while their 
days^ work was weighed and publicly pro- 
claimed« 

But it will be a far more wonderful sight 
to behold the toilers of Christ coming up 
from every land, and, at the Judgment Day, 
lay down before their God their trophies, 
sheaves and good works — the labors of a 
lifetime* 

The unspeakably sorrowful feature con- 
nected with the close of a great war and 
the return of the soldiers is that so many 
who went forth never come back, but are 
left sleeping under the soil of many a 
bloody battlefield or in the obscure grave- 
yard of some far distant hospital or prison* 

Far sadder than this will it be if many 



88 THE FINAL SCENE. 

who were once soldiers of Christ and 
marched away to fight His battles should 
have been wounded^ captured or destroyed 
by the enemy and never come back^ 

The Devil will finally surrender^ the war 
on earth be over and then the Celestial army^ 
the Church Triumphant, will appear return- 
ing to enter upon everlasting peace, when lo! 
it is seen that many who once fought in the 
ranks for Christ are not beheld in the home- 
coming* They have been left on some 
distant field of sin* They were mortally 
wounded by Satan^ They were not faithful 
unto death* Like the angels, they kept not 
their first estate* Like Baalam, Judas, Saul 
and Demas, they fell and ^ Vent unto their 
own place^^ in the world of the lost, the 
eternal captives of the DeviL 

How we pray that all of God^s Israel may 
be saved, that those who read these lines, 
as well as he who writes them, may endure 
hardness as good soldiers of Christ, fight a 
good fight, keep the faith, and dying, find 
our latest foe under our feet at last* May 
we be in our places on that wonderful day 
when the Saints come marching into 
Heaven from all climes and nations of the 
earth. And may we all have the King to 
smile upon us, and bless us, and say, 'Well 
done, thou good and faithful servant; enter 
tjic^^^into the joy of thy Lord/' 



J^EW 'BOOKS ^ ^miJ^G. 1902 

'Bible 
Character ^erie^ 

'By 

"Re^. B. Carradine 

G I !> B O /f 

J^oto T^eady 

^AMSOJ^ MOSBS l>AVn> 

To be issued t at e r 
Each "BooK Handsomely Bound in Clolh 



Dr. Carradine is one of our best known devo- 
tional writers. Fully a dozen books from his pen 
have gone into a circulation aggregating many 
thousands of copies. The announcement of this 
new series by him will be joyously received by 
many who have read his former works. With a 
keen spiritual insight Dr. Carradine has delved 
into the lives of these ** Old Testament Heroes." 
The first book of the series, 

Gideon 

Contains 88 large pages. Eighteen chapters. The reader 
finds his attention held by a strange interest as the life of 
Gideon is made to show many of the great secrets of real 
Christian living. 

'Price, 35 cts., postpaid 

CONTENTS— 1, The Man in Obscurity. 2, Called of 
God. 3, The Preparation of the Man. 4, Unexpected Hai>- 
penings. 5, The Terrible Odds. 6, The Failure of Signs. 7, 
The Sifting of Gideon's Army. 8, The Three Hundred. 
9, The Midianitish Tent. 10, The Weajwnless Battalion. 
II, The Strange Instruments of God. 12, Every Man Stood 
in His Place. 13, The Battle and Victory. 14, The Men of 
Naphtali. 15, The Humility of Gideon. 16, The Magnani- 
mity of Gideon. 17, The Snare of Gideon. 18, The Final 
Scene. 



0/>e Consecrated Life 
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Among its contributors are : 

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d. v. gwilym 

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Edited and arranged by 
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It Will Convict Sinners of Their Need of Christ. 

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Over 300 Pages. 

Price, Cloth Bound, $1.00. 

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No book of modern times is like it, for it gathers 
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Uhird Rdiiion 

Hl/fTS to FiSHE'RMEff 
Or Holxp to Win Souls 

Ex)angelUt C. E. Cornell 

Trice, Tleal Seal 'Binding, Giti Ed^ej, 'Round Cor^ 
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It is the only Vest-pocket, Ready Reference 
Book that we know of treating the subject of 
Entire Sanctification fully, and giving so much 
useful, clear and practical information concerning 
altar work. It contains: 

Helps to Young Converts. How to Retain and 
Enjoy Perfect Love. A Worker's Tools. Baiting 
the Hook. How to Deal with the Unsaved. How 
am I to be Filled with the Holy Spirit? The Effect 
of Receiving the Holy Spirit. How to Deal with 
Believers who Ought to Seek Full Salvation. It 
gives Scriptural answers for the following excuses 
which are so often heard : * *Not to-night. ' * * *I am 
as good as lots of your professors.'* ''I've never 
done anything very bad." ''I started once and 
failed." ''I am too great a sinner." ''I'll wait 
until I have more feeling. " "I cannot hold out. " 
"I can't give up all." "I don't believe some things 
in the Bible." "I don't believe in hell." "I'll 
risk it." 

^ome Opinions : 

Bishop W. F. Mai,i,ai:.iku says: "A very help- 
ful book to all young Christian people who desire 
to be soul- winners. ' ' 

The Ckntrai, Christian Advocate: *'It is 
written in brief sentences calculated to catch the 



eye. The hints for meeting the objections of 
seekers are practical and usable.** 

Benson H. Roberts, in the Earnest Christian, 
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deplete Religion 

'By 

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Cloth l^ound ISO Ta^es Trice, pojipaid, 50 eU, 

** Henry Ostrom*s enthusiasm and earnestness 
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spiritual tonic." — The Epworth Herald. 

* ' * A religion that needs to be apologized for 
could never culminate in the hallelujahs of victory,* 
is the first sentence in the opening chapter. From 
it the reader can catch the tune and style. The 
book is an incentive and a persuasive helper into 
clearer apprehension and fuller realization of the 
'replete religion* which God offers all who will 
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** Evidently the design of the author of this 
book is to induce as many as may read it to seek 
all there is for them in the religion of Jesus Christ. 
It will do much good and we heartily commend 
W^The Wesley an Methodist. 

**From title page to finis the author proceeds 
in the rapture of a glad hallelujah. As an example 
of fervid, deeply spiritual and thoroughly evan- 
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Baltimore Methodist, 



^ound^ in the 
Golden Ladder 

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Known to the public as **The Tlam's Horn 

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experience, *'Into and Out of Infidelity." 

Cloth ^ound 272 Ta^ej Trice, f 1.00^ postpaid 

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gives them with telling effect."— K M. C. A, 
Journal^ Philadelph ia . 

' ' No other man can put so much hard sense into 
so few words." — Breeze, DeFuniak, Fla. 

** Illustrations apt and characterizations true to 
life." — Herald^ Lancaster, Ohio. 

** A great book by a famous man on the universal 
prayer of Christendom." — The Christian Standard. 

"The Ram's Horn Man" has a peculiar and 
fascinating style which makes people think. Every 
sentence carries with it a little sermon. He 
shows that he is a wonderful student of human 
nature. His book is sparkling with originality 
and big chunks of truth. Telling illustrations ruu 
through his writings like a golden thread, making 
you conscious all the time that he is holding you 
up before your own foibles, follies and idiosyi;::ra- 
cies. You may expect a treat in this book. 



Hosannas to the J\tng 

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Price, 15 cts. each ; ^12,00 per hundred. 



A BIT OF CORRESPONDENCE 



' ' Campello, Mass. 
* ' Gentlemen : — Our Church is about to select a 
new song book. I saw your advertisement of 
* Hosannas to the King. ' Please send me a copy 
for examination. Yours respectfully, 

*' R. BI.IGH TEI.FER.'* 



' ' Campello, Mass. 
* * Gentlemen : — I received the examination copy 
of * Hosannas to the King, * and, with the rest of 
the Committee, have looked it over and have decided 
that it is the book we need. It has the least of 
trash in it of any book that I have had the pleasure 
of looking into lately. Generally you have to buy 
about 5 or 6 songs to get one good one. Please 
send us lOo copies. Yours respectfully, 

' * R. Bl,IGH Tei^fer. ' ' 

Any Pastor or Evangelist or Sunday-School Super- 
intendent or Camp Meeting Committee may 
have a copy of any one or all of these books for 
examination if they will promise to return them 
in thirty days or else remit the price to us. 

27 



WIAR3 1 



1905 



MAR 31 1902 



APR. 



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